HippieSmell
Occupy Reef Central
My tank is at the end of its cycle and I started dosing 15 ml per 100 gallons. I went from 1.6 ppm PO4 and 8 ppm of nitrate to 0.07 phosphate and 4 ppm nitrate in six days! Is it supposed to work that fast?
Vinegar dosing really works!
- Thread starter HippieSmell
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HippieSmell
Occupy Reef Central
AFAIK, yes. If it were only phosphate or nitrate that dropped, I'd assume I messed up, but they both basically halved.
I dosed with VSV over 5 days and went from 160ppm to 5ppm nitrate and 5ppm to 0.5-0.25ppm phosphate, and i thought I was under dosing because I didn't see any change the first two days. My concern with how fast it works is that it continued to drop for two days after I stopped dosing and kicked off a small ammonia cycle in my tank. My ammonia was up to 3ppm for a few hours, nothing seems to be affected by it and all levels are back to 0, but I'm patiently waiting for nitrates to register again so I know my nitrogen cycle is on track again. It has been just over a week since I dosed, and IF I dose again, I'm definitely going to be more conservative with how much I use.
HippieSmell
Occupy Reef Central
Nitrates "eat" Nitrites, Nitrites "eat" ammonia, all tank inhabitants put off ammonia. You reduce the nitrates enough and the inhabitants produce ammonia faster than the nitrogen cycle can convert it to nitrogen gas.
HippieSmell
Occupy Reef Central
That's not exactly how I understand the nitrogen cycle. I'm unsure of the mechanism by which a reduction of nitrate would spike ammonia.
It's bacteria that consume mineralized nutrients like ammonia. I don't see any way for dosing VSV to cause an ammonia spike unless something gets killed or the like. VSV doesn't contain any nitrogen, so it can't be processed into ammonia. Ammonia is a product of protein metabolism.
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